Stanford University – Secure Communications Wing – 2:26 a.m.
Langdon paced the narrow hallway, the glow of Katherine's tablet illuminating his face. On the screen: a grainy satellite image of Prague's Malá Strana district, just below the towering presence of Prague Castle. The image had been forwarded to Katherine from a Czech contact—an engineer she once collaborated with during an EEG frequency symposium in Vienna.
What it showed was unmistakable.
A warehouse.
And on its rooftop, barely visible in the moonlight—an array of metallic structures arranged in the exact configuration as the cube's internal geometry.
A duplicate.
Langdon stopped. "Another cube?" Katherine nodded grimly. "Or at least an attempt. Someone's replicating our research. Same dimensional ratios. Same electromagnetic signature… only inverted." "Inverted?" Langdon echoed.
"Yes," she said. "While our cube aligns with brainwave harmonics—this one seems built to disrupt them." Langdon felt the weight of the discovery settle on his chest. A counter-cube. A dark mirror. Whatever their cube was unlocking in the human mind, this device in Prague might be doing the opposite—fracturing, distorting… even weaponizing resonance.
Katherine turned the screen again. "And there's more. I ran an interference scan through the international noetic registry. This new cube is generating intermittent signal bursts—but not across radio frequencies." Langdon looked puzzled.
"It's emitting on Schumann resonance bands," Katherine said.
Langdon blinked. "The Earth's natural electromagnetic pulse?" "Exactly. Whoever's behind this isn't just experimenting on individuals—they're targeting the global frequency that all living beings unconsciously tune to. They're trying to overwrite it." Langdon's mind raced. If their cube harmonized with consciousness, then this inverse structure might suppress it—generate chaos, dissonance, even mass psychological unrest.
Katherine's voice was calm but urgent. "We need to go to Prague. I've contacted the Czech Academy—they'll give us access." Langdon nodded. But something gnawed at him.
"Do we know who is building it?" he asked.
Katherine hesitated. "One name keeps coming up in encrypted black research circles… an anonymous benefactor known only as Janus." Langdon froze.
Janus—the Roman god of duality. Of beginnings and endings. Of doors.
Two faces. Two directions.
Two cubes.
Katherine looked up at him. "Robert… what if we were never meant to stop the signal? What if both cubes are part of the same message—one half light, one half shadow?" Langdon felt a chill. The resonance cube had been evolving with every emotional encounter, every secret unlocked. But what if this second cube… was not evolving at all?
What if it was waiting?